Re: quick question about onboard RAID controllers

Matthew wrote:
"Arny Krueger" <arnyk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:up6dnbgd1dvp6DjVnZ2dnUVZ_o7inZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Matthew" <Im@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:GLWok.10946$vX2.2600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I was simply doing a
little research based on a reply I got from a Creative
Cow post where another user said I was crazy to use an
onboard RAID controller as it would slow down my system
quite a bit and create inconsistent performance across
the RAID.
And they made this guideline up when?

The value of a given increment of processing speed is continuously and rapidly decreasing.

I seem to recall running 100% software RAID (striping) on a Pentium III and NT 3.5. It was still faster than a bare drive.

My comment about needing every bit of
processing power was geard for the newsgroup I actually
intended this post to go to in the first place... in that
group they would have said something to the effect of
"who cares if it utilizes your processor and slows the
system down".
One hidden secret is that mirroring often provides a speed advantage that is about 2/3 that of striping. IOW, if striping is twice as fast, mirroring is about 1.666 as fast, for a typical mixed workload.
Well if that's the case then I would think the ideal situaliton would be to mirror 2 of the WD 1TB Black drives... would this be the case?


That secret is so secret I've never heard of mirrored drives being 2/3 as fast as striped drives, only that they offer the same performance as a single drive.

Based on the very limited amount of information of your needs we have concluded that the Caviar Black is fast enough for your HDV editing needs. Another option you might like to consider is, instead of purchasing 2 drives and mirroring them why not have them configured as JBOD and do a manual backup.

I run an Automator script that copies my FCP projects to my backup drive at the close of play in the evening. I can also use the backup drive to store other media too. It just seems a bit of a waste to commit a whole 1TB to just mirroring.

You said previously you contacted Blackmagic regarding RAID requirements and they gave you an answer. But did you pose them the same question as you've posed this group? You say you just do HDV editing but is that all? No motion graphics, compositing, grading or uncompressed editing? If you have aspirations beyond HDV then obviously you should be looking at a RAID 5 array that meets your performance needs.

.

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  • Re: quick question about onboard RAID controllers
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